Lots of Updates

Well where do i start.................................................. since our last update time has just flown by.

Our plan was to leave for Sukute beach on the 13th of November but there was a road block as a villager had been hit by a motor bike and the village involved wanted compensation from the government. So we were delayed a day which was okay as it was great to have another day working on paddling skills and rolling in the Kathmandu police swimming pool.

Malaika showing the girls how Buoyancy Aids work.

Radha loving it. Unfortunately she gets super dizzy after rolling over a couple of times, so she couldn't work on her rolling as it made her chuck up. But above the water she was super happy.The girls working on their rafting up skills

The girls worked super hard all day and we pushed them to the max, so with red eyes and looking like drenched rats we called it quits and went for a nice feed of Dahl Baht with the Nepali Girls and Inka. All the girls came back and stayed at the Holy Lodge with us for the night as they had already left their homes for the trip and weren't super keen to return. We also meet Susmita and Sita that evening, who were also joining the training programme (2 girls Inka worked with last time she was here).

All of us at the Kathmandu Police Pool

Early the next morning we were up packing gear, putting it on Rickshaws (3 wheeler bikes with big carriages) and making our way to the bus that was taking us to Sukute Beach.

Hester, Hayley and Anna sorting gear for the trip.

We made it almost all the way and then about 15km out from our destination we hit the road block, so we grabbed everything we could carry and started walked. 4-5km later we were on the other side of the road block and a truck had come to take us the last few km to Sukute Beach.

We were super eager to get an afternoon of paddling in with the girls so after meeting Mona (the Nepali Woman who worked with Inka to make this happen) we had a quick lunch, set up camp on the beach, dug a toilet hole and then decided to go back and walk through the road block again to get kayaks so we could get on the water.

Pasang begged a few of the locals to please let us through and told them the project story but they wouldn't budge so off we walked. We got to the bus and heard they were going to unblock the road so after an hour and a half the bus was moving and it raced through the road block to Sukute Beach with half of us on the roof. The boats were coming loose and we were on top of them and the bus was gunning it so it was pretty exciting and super scary at the same time.

Emi, Malaika and Hessie waiting on the roof for the road to be unblocked.

It was almost dark by the time we got back so no paddling for the day but we had a great evening by the fire and some amazing Nepali food cooked by the girls.

Next day we were on the water with the girls working on paddling straight, then moving on to sweep strokes then edging and carving, and then eddy turns. The girls were looking great. Some also spent a bit of time in the pool working on rolling. We also had two 15 year old local girls Comola and Susilla join us. They have been doing some kayaking with Mona and we helped them with rolling for the day.

We had another great evening around the fire and the Nepali Girls really came out of their shells showing us how to dance Nepali Style. It was a great evening of bonding and heaps of giggles.